After nearly 80 years in the building industry my family is slowly winding down in this area.
My Grandad was a master builder who employed many men from Walsall and Bloxwich and I myself have been in the field of ceilings and partitions for the past 20 years and consider myself at the height of my profession having travelled the globe teaching this area of the building industry to other less fortunate people.
So imagine my disgust when I pulled onto the car park of the new Walsall College and proceeded to the portable building of the main contractor to enquire about some work – only to be told that there wasn’t any, yet the size of the job suggests otherwise.
On leaving the said office my partner and I spoke to another person working on the site
I feel I have not only been let down by the Government but also by the council I pay taxes to. Why oh why doesn’t someone listen to the normal working class person instead of burying their heads in the sand. What has gone so wrong that I can’t even find work in my home town because I want to earn a decent wage and not work for peanuts.
Most of the jobs that I have been on recently since this influx of certain immigrants, have had to be put right and back to a better class of workmanship because the standard is far lower than that of a qualified worker or time-served man, so where is the sense in all that? More expense.
Spencer Wild, Lydford Road, Bloxwich.
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5 Comments
We, the customers, are only to blame.
We expect cheaper and cheaper prices. This means that firms have to push wages down.
Brits expect higher and higher wages. This means they won’t work for construction firms, and would rather work in a bar, in a call centre or in a shop.
We expect higher and higher interest rates from our savings, cheaper insurance premiums, better return from our pensions - and then we have the cheek and ignorance to complain when companies employ cheap labour. Hyprocrites.
If you have any guts and you really beleived in what you’re saying, then you would be prepared to pay higher prices to ensure that your labour and materials are locally sourced.
Buy you don’t, and then you complain.
Ok, so some Polish are doing the job.
Where was Mr Wild when the job first needed doing? If he’s not around to do it, someone else must do the work.
I’d be suprised at any contractor throwing existing workers off a job to let someone else do it unless there was a problem.
Funny about experiences of work done too - I’ve had work done by time served qualified British workers thats been so bad its had to be redone. And had work done by people from other countries thats been done right first time.
You get crap workers wherever you go, its not nationality thats the issue. Just as you also get good workers wherever you go too.
Fine Mr Wild, you want to work in your home town for a decent wage and not peanuts. While at the same time people do tend to want things done on time and cheaply.
So compete against others with your quality. Or your price.
Try tendering for the work at the begining of the contract, or if your a small contactor/Labour only, try the sub-contractor not the Main Contractor. The gang masters don’t charge peanuts I can tell you, its up to you to be competetive. Just how much exactly to you work for a day, because it’ll be alot more than most people would expect. The only reason there is a building industry left is the poles and other easten europeans who came in, they prevented the wages going through the roof while providing skill levels above the general average
For someone with 80 years experience, you act as someone who has no idea.
no one minds paying for a decent service and i think we should always buy british/use british labour.The prices will always be the same regardless of the labour used the only difference is that the contractor will make a bigger profit by using cheaper labour that is why they use them.Dont think for a moment that by using polish workers any savings will be passed on to us it will just end up in the pockets of the bosses.
And the problem with using the cheap labour is then what?
Extra profit means extra taxes, all other costs being equal.
Or the cheap labour allows for the job to be done cheaper, with better chance of winning the tender when compared to more expensive bids.
Never seen the idea of the price being the same regardless of the labour used. Never seen contract bids having the same price yet.